The life of an Irish cow is pretty sweet...

onrail · 02-07-2019 12:59PM #1

I was driving through the countryside last week, saw a field of cows basking in the sunshine happily munching on grass and thought to myself... Jesus don't cows have it great. Seriously.

Led to fresh pasture every day, brought in for milking and delicious dairy ration twice a day. No long commute, no mortgage, no Gemma O' Doherty, unaware of their eventual demise.

Sure, they're slaughtered later on in life, but it's hard to argue that they're aware of that eventuality, even when seconds from the bolt. I'd almost choose that over a long and painful death that seems to be all to common in our society

Not saying that it's all rosy - there's an obvious downside in mothers being separated from their offspring early on, but that tends to be forgotten in a matter of days or weeks at a maximum.

So, leaving aside environmental concerns for now, is the ethical argument against animal products valid in the context of the Irish dairy cow? And before you start posting links like crazy, I'm not defending the more 'factory' type food production: battery hens, zero grazing etc etc.

jester77 · 02-07-2019 01:02PM

Too true... they have 4 stomachs as well, how awesome is that.

Boom_Bap · 02-07-2019 01:07PM

They have to walk around in their sh*te and other cows sh*te all day.
I wonder if they can tell the difference.

02-07-2019 01:08PM

In primary school, we learnt a poem that started as follows:

Half the time they munched the grass, and all the time they lay
Down in the water-meadows, the lazy month of May,
A-chewing,
A-mooing,
To pass the hours away...

kneemos · 02-07-2019 01:11PM

Unless you're a bull calf. Expect to have your nuts drop off and meet a bolt gun as soon as you're mature.

onrail · 02-07-2019 01:17PM

kneemos wrote: »

Unless you're a bull calf. Expect to have your nuts drop off and meet a bolt gun as soon as you're mature.

Valid point

Force Carrier · 02-07-2019 01:21PM

The live transport crammed into ship holds is pretty unpleasant. That's not dairy cows but the point stands.

Mad_maxx · 02-07-2019 01:26PM

onrail wrote: »

I was driving through the countryside last week, saw a field of cows basking in the sunshine happily munching on grass and thought to myself... Jesus don't cows have it great. Seriously.

Led to fresh pasture every day, brought in for milking and delicious dairy ration twice a day. No long commute, no mortgage, no Gemma O' Doherty, unaware of their eventual demise.

Sure, they're slaughtered later on in life, but it's hard to argue that they're aware of that eventuality, even when seconds from the bolt. I'd almost choose that over a long and painful death that seems to be all to common in our society

Not saying that it's all rosy - there's an obvious downside in mothers being separated from their offspring early on, but that tends forgotten in a matter of days or weeks at a maximum.

So, leaving aside environmental concerns for now, is the ethical argument against animal products valid in the context of the Irish dairy cow? And before you start posting links like crazy, I'm not defending the more 'factory' type food production: battery hens, zero grazing etc etc.

Cows in Ireland in the overwhelming majority of cases have a very pleasant life, they are blissfully unaware of what is going to happen in the slaughter House at the end of their life

Funnily enough the kind of liberals who screech about the cruelty of the meat factories tend to go all quiet when it comes to the area of halal slaughter

Can't be having the " islamaphobia"

TuringBot47 · 02-07-2019 01:27PM

onrail wrote: »

No long commute, no mortgage, no Gemma O' Doherty

It's as if they're on social welfare.

02-07-2019 01:34PM

kneemos wrote: »

Unless you're a bull calf. Expect to have your nuts drop off and meet a bolt gun as soon as you're mature.

You have to be a bull calf to have nuts to remove

Plumbthedepths · 02-07-2019 01:36PM

Force Carrier wrote:

The live transport crammed into ship holds is pretty unpleasant. That's not dairy cows but the point stands.

Free cruise.

Guy:Incognito · 02-07-2019 01:48PM

I want to go to bovine university.

Force Carrier · 02-07-2019 01:49PM

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

Free cruise.

That's a moot point.

Plumbthedepths · 02-07-2019 01:53PM

Force Carrier wrote:

That's a moo(t) point.

FYP.

Deebles McBeebles · 02-07-2019 02:18PM

I like cows, beautiful animals. I feel for them.

No joke.

Aceandstuff · 02-07-2019 02:23PM

Imagine being literally made of steak...

Outlaw Pete · 02-07-2019 02:36PM

Yeah, that's the image our tourist board would like to portray alright but a few years ago when the Americans asks us to fulfill a regular order of grass fed beef we couldn't do it and in the end made a deal on beef that was 80% grass fed.

Not having a go at our farmers, they work hard and are forever squeezed but the quality of our beef is nowhere near what it was just 10 to 15 years ago unless you go out of your way to get premium product.

Timberrrrrrrr · 02-07-2019 02:38PM

Mad_maxx wrote: »

Cows in Ireland in the overwhelming majority of cases have a very pleasant life, they are blissfully unaware of what is going to happen in the slaughter House at the end of their life

Funnily enough the kind of liberals who screech about the cruelty of the meat factories tend to go all quiet when it comes to the area of halal slaughter

Can't be having the " islamaphobia"

I was wondering how long it would take

The answer is 8

8 posts :rolleyes:

jcorr · 02-07-2019 02:41PM

The life of a cow isn't very easy. They usually are "in calf" for 9 months and then they are milking straight for about six months. There is an overlap between those two periods of course. When a cow is getting close to calving period, they will be dried off with 'holidays' usually for about two months, but they will still be heavy in calf. That cycle will continue for an adult cow for about ten years.

A cow might give enough milk in a day to fill two large buckets which is pretty heavy to carry and very stressful for the animal. They also have to contend with bullies in the herd believe it or not. The bullying behavior usually displays itself closer to milking time when the cows are very stressed.

Thelonious Monk · 02-07-2019 03:49PM

Mad_maxx wrote: »

Funnily enough the kind of liberals who screech about the cruelty of the meat factories tend to go all quiet when it comes to the area of halal slaughter

Can't be having the " islamaphobia"

Do you have an example of these liberals going quiet about this issue?
Who sells the cows to these halal folk by the way?

Timberrrrrrrr · 02-07-2019 03:54PM

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Do you have an example of these liberals going quiet about this issue?
Who sells the cows to these halal folk by the way?

I find it even funnier when you point out that kosher food is slaughtered without stunninng yet never a peep about this.

biko · 02-07-2019 03:55PM

The life of Indian cows must be even better, treated like gods like.

Thelonious Monk · 02-07-2019 03:59PM

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

I find it even funnier when you point out that kosher food is slaughtered without stunninng yet never a peep about this.

A peep from who? "Liberal types" by which the poster probably meant people who don't wish cruelty upon animals? Do you really think that they are ok with animal cruelty and mistreatment if it's done by Jews or Muslims? That's just ridiculous.

fonecrusher1 · 02-07-2019 04:02PM

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

I like cows, beautiful animals.

Beautifully delicious in a brioche burger bun! Yummy.

Timberrrrrrrr · 02-07-2019 04:03PM

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

A peep from who? "Liberal types" by which the poster probably meant people who don't wish cruelty upon animals? Do you really think that they are ok with animal cruelty and mistreatment if it's done by Jews or Muslims? That's just ridiculous.

Several people on several threads talking about the cruelty of halal, Not a single poster mentions Kosher even though kosher slaughter is worse than halal, You would swear they had an agenda

Boom_Bap · 02-07-2019 04:05PM

Its all moo's and poo's.

VicMackey1 · 02-07-2019 04:07PM

jester77 wrote: »

Too true... they have 4 stomachs as well, how awesome is that.

Technically, cows only have one stomach. There is four compartments within that stomach though!

ILoveYourVibes · 02-07-2019 04:08PM

Force Carrier wrote: »

The live transport crammed into ship holds is pretty unpleasant. That's not dairy cows but the point stands.

https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/animaltransport/

It is pretty regulated though.

decky1 · 02-07-2019 04:08PM

ah but would you want someone touching your tits twice a day.? and maybe the odd time putting their arm up your --Well i'll leave it at that.

ILoveYourVibes · 02-07-2019 04:10PM

Did YOU know ...cows eat birds.

Sometimes deer and horses do too.

Like they kill them and eat them.

Force Carrier · 02-07-2019 04:10PM

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/animaltransport/

It is pretty regulated though.

Ah they churn out these paper regulations

The life of an Irish cow is pretty sweet...

Comments